Divorce and post-divorce adjustment remain a central concern in understanding the mental health of families and individual family members. Social science research on these processes has been severely limited by the reliance of past researchers on census-type data. The proposed research, which will study the participants' view of these processes (through a panel sample of interviews with divorced men and women at crucial stages of the adjustment process), will therefore provide a unique and most necessary addition to the limited social science knowledge in this crucial area. The proposed research has the following objectives: 1. To replicate Goode's pioneering research (in Afer Divorce) twenty-five years later to provide a current and comprehensive analysis of divorce and the post-divorce adjustment process. 2. To add a new dimension to our understanding of divorce by focusing on the interaction between the legal institutions and the family. This research will provide: a) a knowledge of how the legal system shapes family processes (by translating the real life problems of the family into legally structured alternatives), and b) an evaluation of the effect of alternative legal framework on the family by comparing the effects of the old and new California Family (and divorce) Law. Research methods include: a) Interviews with divorced men and women (panel sample); b) a random sample of cases from court dockets in 1968, 1972, and 1974 (to examine the impact of the new Family Law Act on final decrees); c) Interviews with a sample of lawyers and judges in conjunction with the panel sample of divorcees. The 1970 legal experiment in family law in California provides a unique laboratory in which to study the impact of liberal legislation on the family, on family dissolution, and on the after-divorce adjustment process.